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Daily news and top headlines for broadband communications engineering and design professionals

RCN Business has launched a new app that lets its business customer employees stay connected with their office phones when they’re on the go. The Business Office Mobility app, which is a new feature from RCN Businesses’ hosted voice and business phone with call manager products, works with both iOS and Android devices.

Pushed along by investments in high-bandwidth services, DOCSIS channels shipments were up 95 percent year-over-year in the third quarter. The move from CMTS platforms to the cable industry’s Converged Cable Access Platform (CCAP) is also well underway with CCAP revenue increasing 7 percent in the third quarter to $360 million, according to a report by Infonetics Research.

More than a year after acquiring Alltel’s wireless operations, AT&T is ready to launch its upgraded coverage for more than 50,000 Alltel customers in Ohio. Former Alltel subscribers can now access AT&T’s LTE network.

Even casual viewers of online video will appreciate the ability to watch it on a big-screen TV. For about $100, you can get a great streaming TV device to do that. Or for about a third of that, you can get a pretty good one. Content selection varies, but all offer such basics as Netflix, Hulu and YouTube. After trying out 10 streaming devices, here are three recommendations and an honorable mention.

Chip-making giant Intel Corp. is still struggling to catch up in mobile computing but says its personal computer business is performing better than expected and its return to revenue growth this year will continue into 2015. Intel's business has suffered as consumers have increasingly turned to smartphones and tablets that mostly use lower-power chips made by other companies.

Using Big Data analytics, service providers can gain invaluable insights that can help them to stay ahead of the competition, improve customer services and drive new revenues. So how can service providers best harness Big Data analytics, and what do they stand to gain from doing so?

There are probably few things more annoying than being held hostage over a four-hour window for a cable installer to arrive at a customer’s home. Comcast has winnowed down that window to around two hours, but now its trialing a new real-time solution that it hopes will alleviate subscribers’ frustrations.

Time Warner Cable has expanded the reach of its Unlimited Home Phone calling plan to include unlimited free calls to China and Hong Kong. With the expansion, calls to China and Hong Kong are now treated the same as long-distance calls anywhere in the U.S., as well as Canada, Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Mexico, which was added to the plan earlier this year.

Driven by upgrades to 802.11ac and Hotspot 2.0, as well as voice-over-Wi-Fi, the carrier Wi-Fi equipment market is poised to hit $3 billion in 2018. In the first half this year, carrier Wi-Fi equipment revenue reached $286 million, which was a 6 percent from the second half of 2013, according to a report by Infonetics Research.

Time Warner Cable announced it has applied the finishing touches to its “TWC Maxx” project upgrades in Los Angeles and New York. TWC Maxx, which was first outlined by CEO Rob Marcus in January, includes all digital conversions in both markets, which has led to faster data tiers, including 300 Mbps down, more VOD choices and an improved whole-home DVR offering.

Graham Holdings’ board of directors has decided that its Cable One division would be more successful on its own with the spinoff slated for next year. Graham Holdings board of directors gave management its nod of approval to proceed with plans for the complete legal and structural separation of Cable One, which will result in the cable operator being a publicly traded company.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts is moving "full steam ahead" with the company's proposed $45 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable despite the uncertainty raised by President Barack Obama's call for tougher regulations on high-speed Internet service providers. Roberts said Comcast Corp. still intends to spend about $20 billion during the next two years to improve its Internet service and other products.

Time Warner Cable Business Class is enabling OhioHealth, which a not-for-profit system of healthcare facilities based in central Ohio, connect patients and physicians with telemedicine services. In addition to triple play services, Time Warner Cable Business Class (TWCBC) is providing OhioHealth with its 100 Mbps point-to-point Ethernet private line (EPL) fiber circuits to connect 50 care sites across the state.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said his company couldn't afford to continue its fiber buildout until regualtory uncertainties were resolved. Stephenson's comments come just days after President Obama's strongest statement yet on the Net Neutrality debate. Obama urged the FCC to categorize ISPs under Title II, which would essentially make the Internet a public utility.

Mediacom Communications saw its third quarter revenue increase slightly in the face of declining video subscribers. Privately held Mediacom, the nation’s eighth-largest cable operator, reported a net quarterly decline of 8,000 primary service units (PSU) across its two subsidiaries.

Internet phone company Vonage Holdings Corp. said it plans to buy privately held Telesphere Networks for $114 million. Telesphere, based in Phoenix, provides video conferencing and cloud-computing for small businesses. It's expected to have revenue of about $40 million this year, Vonage said.

Comcast Cable has hired former Yahoo executive Javier Garcia to the positions of vice president and general manager, multicultural services. In his new job, Garcia will report to Marcien Jenckes, executive vice president of consumer services for Comcast Cable. He’ll be responsible for directing, designing and implementing Comcast’s multicultural services strategy across all of its Xfinity products.

Cable One is up and running with the latest iteration of CSG International’s customer care and billing platform. Cable One is using CSG in support of its video, voice and data services for both business and residential customers.

Verizon teamed up with Greenwave Systems on its new home gateway, which, under lab conditions, can deliver up 800 Mbps on the downstream along with an unobstructed Wi-Fi range of up to 325 feet. The gateway uses beamforming and supports the various standards of Wi-Fi, including 802.11b/g/n/ac, as well as MoCA 2.0 and Ethernet.

Comcast continues to polish its customer service apple by allowing subscribers to drop off their equipment directly at UPS stores where the gear will be processed, packed and shipped back to Comcast free of charge. In addition to the more than 500 Xfinity stores, the equipment can now be dropped off at 4,400 UPS stores across the nation. The equipment can be handed into the UPS stores as is, without wrapping or packaging.

Sony's losses ballooned to 136 billion yen ($1.2 billion) last quarter as the Japanese electronics and entertainment company's troubled mobile phone division reported huge red ink. The Tokyo-based maker of the PlayStation 4 video game machines, Spider-Man movies and Xperia smartphones had reported a 19.6 billion yen loss for the same July-September period a year earlier.

While Time Warner Cable waits in the wings to be acquired by Comcast, the nation’s second-largest cable saw its third-quarter net income drop 6 percent. On the subscriber front, Time Warner Cable lost 184,000 residential video customers in the quarter, which was partially offset by the addition of 92,000 data customers and 14,000 voice subscribers.

Aided by an increase in broadband subscribers, Charter Communications increased its revenue in the third quarter while also cutting its net losses. Charter added 94,000 data subscribers in the third, which helped offset the loss of 9,000 basic video subscribers. Charter had lost 27,000 video subscribers in the same quarter a year ago

People who subscribe to Time Warner Cable (TWC) VoIP can now use their phone service anywhere in the world they have access to a Wi-Fi signal. TWC has launched an app, called Phone 2 Go, that lets its Home Phone customers take their service on-the-go at no additional cost.

The SCTE Rocky Mountain Chapter is hosting an executive roundtable next week that will tackle various top-of-mind topics including current events, network capacity, competition and customer experence. The “Executive Roundtable: 2015 and Beyond" event is slated for 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Nov. 4 at The Cable Center in Denver.